Despite oncology being a focus of pharmaceutical R&D for decades, some cancers remain difficult to treat. Drug Target Review’s Hannah Balfour spoke with Hans Klingemann, MD, PhD, Vice President of R&D at NantKwest, a clinical stage immunotherapy company, to find out how effective treatments against traditionally treatment-refractory cancers, like pancreatic cancers and triple-negative breast cancers, can be developed.

Cue Biopharma forged a clinical collaboration with Merck to combine its lead candidate CUE-101 with Merck‘s Keytruda as a first-line treatment for HPV+ recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer.

GV, Bill Gates and Foresight Capital joined three existing investors in Cerevance’s recent Series B round, which closed with $45m raised. The ability of this brain disease-focused drug discovery company to close a lucrative round with such high-profile investors amid the Covid-19 pandemic is impressive, but how will the new financing impact the Cerevance’s future?

The question James E. Brown, President & CEO, DURECT asked of CDMOs when he founded the company in 1998 remains perfectly operational. “‘Who are they?’ is the most important question for me regarding our external partners,” he tells me from his corporate headquarters in Cupertino, CA.

San Diego biotech company CalciMedica has partnered with two Midwestern hospitals to test a drug designed to help COVID-19 patients who are battling severe pneumonia.